On April 6, the Special Olympics Yukon (SOY) board of directors made the decision to further suspend all SOY activity until June 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When that day hits, they will re-evaluate the situation.

Since regular programming has been put on ice, Special Olympics Yukon are using the time to get creative, beginning #BreakUpTheBoredom – which can be found on social media platforms.

"Our biggest fear, given the fact that for a big part of our days we are spent in isolation, was concern for our athletes' mental health and fitness," said Special Olympics Yukon CEO Serge Michaud.

Michaud said when conceptualizing #BreakUpTheBoredom, the Special Olympics Team, who is working from home, looked at what other jurisdictions were creating and decided to localize it.

"We thought, ‘what could we do to make local content?’” said Michaud. "Larissa (Winslade, the office and events co-ordinator) is pretty savvy. We decided to engage our Special Olympics Yukon Champions network.

"We wanted to create our own TV channel where everyday we release new content. We wanted to give our athletes something to do at home so we asked our champions to do virtual fitness videos or motivational videos."

The first fitness video was from champion Jeremy McCulloh of Northern Strength Academy who led a five-minute exercise routine.

Tracey Bilsky, Sport Yukon’s executive director, and Thomas Scoffin, the skip for the Yukon's brier team, shared motivational videos.

Moira Sauer did a two-part series on stretching and yoga to help defeat that boredom.

"It's not doing a lot, just something," said Michaud. "There is only so much Netflix you can watch. It's five minutes but you've done something. Let's not grovel and sit in front of the TV."

The #BreakUpTheBoredom initiative is more than just fitness and motivational videos. There is SOY Flashback Friday, where old photos make a return.

During the first week, there was a Photo Challenge and last week, there was a Musical Playlist Challenge – people were encouraged to submit their favourite songs to dance to.

Michaud said it is just as important to keep the athletes engaged socially.

"We are an organization that strives for the social component through sports," said Michaud. "Our athletes are social people, and this has been really difficult for our athletes."

To help keep the athletes engaged socially, the SOY coaches are checking in on them.

"We were talking our coaches about about having mental-wellness talks with the athletes – just ask them questions," said Michaud. "We can't have the physical connection; we can still do social calls to tell them to keep their heads up."

During this week's agenda, a virtual coffee talk has been organized on Saturday via Zoom.

Special Olympics Canada has been helping to break the boredom. On April 13, Canadian Olympic swimmer Penny Oleksiak did a Wellness Wednesday for Special Olympics athletes country-wide.

Michaud said it's important for the athletes to engage with an Olympian, but for the territory's athletes, it's just as important to hear from other Yukoners.

"It's your neighbour, it's your backyard," said Michaud. "Whitehorse is a wonderful community that rallies around everyone, including our athletes.

"We are getting good feedback from everyone. One of the big things for us was to create local stuff. It was really a question of why not?"

Until the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, Michaud, said Special Olympics Yukon will continue to produce content for the athletes, and anyone else who would like to #BreakUpTheBoredom.